Golf guy birthday

Here's another golf card, this one birthday themed.  The image is a Mo Manning one, and I've used a cuttlebug embossing folder in the background instead of adding a birthday tag.  It's pretty plain, but the plan is for it to be a card my hubby will give to a guy friend, so I had to avoid any thing "fru-fru"....sigh....

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

By the Cute and Girly - boys/men

Celebrate the Occasion - Sports
Simon Says Stamps - Anything Goes
Charisma Cards - For the guys
Cards und More - Sports

Santa clause is coming to town

Ho ho ho, Christmas is coming!  Here is another festive creation, super quick and easy to make, except for my adventures with parchment paper.

I've been using my new A2 Card Creator dies from Spellbinders, and they tend to hold on to the paper and it can be really hard to get the paper out after it's cut.  One way to deal with this is to run it with a piece of wax or parchment paper between the die cut and card stock.  I wound up with lots of these pretty doily like looking bits and thought they'd be great to use....guess I didn't think about the fact that they are non stick.....good old fashion glue and my dimensionals worked, but nothing else, so there was some experimenting needed!

The paper/image is from Graphic 45, the poinsettia created from another Spellbinders die cut, and the ticket is from an SU digi set.  I rubbed inka gold over the swirl and added stickler to the poinsettia, as well as added a gold robins nest dew drop to the centre of it.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

ABC Christmas Challenge - S is for Santa Claus

Just Keep On Creating - Christmas is just around the corner!

Simon Says Stamp Challenge - Anything Goes

Perfect Sentiments Challenge - Vintage Christmas (vintage image)

Joans Garden:  Use DP as a background, a sentiment, a swirl, and a dimensional flower

Simon Says Stamp & Show - For the love of sparkle

FOSTV - Tags or Tickets

Cute Card Thursday - letters and numbers

Festive poinsettia

Well, it has been a crafty day, that's for sure!  Here is another Christmas creation.  This one is a bit thick, so it won't be mailable, but I will be sure to put it to good use as a hand delivered card for family.

The poinsettia is created using the Spellbinders dies, as are the leaves.  I also added some punched foliage and a swirl.  The tag is an SU digi.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges

Joans Garden:  Use DP as a background, a sentiment, a swirl, and a dimensional flower

Crazy4 Challenge - use leaves

Simon Says Stamp & Show - For the love of sparkle

Stampin for the weekend - Feeling Floral

Simon Says - Anything goes

All purpose cards

Most of the cards I make are for a particular purpose, but I've been trying to make more "all purpose" cards, ones that I can leave in my desk at work and can whip out if I suddenly need a thank you, birthday, so long, or sympathy card.

Here is a card I made today, and I was going to add a bunch of leaves to it and make it an autumn card, and then decided to leave it clean as an "all purpose" one.  I just love this image from Marks Finest Papers since it is so versatile, and also so quick and easy to colour.

I folded the base card stock in half and then carefully cut it with a hinge so I could have a shaped card. The main image is popped up with dimensional foam squares.  What colouring there is was done with Copics, and the sponging on the edge is with brown craft ink.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Speedy and Friends - Circles
Shopping our stash - Feathers of Fur
Simon Says - Anything goes
Cutie Pie Challenge - Shaped Cards
Little Miss Muffet - Anything but square

Peace Tag

Today I've had Christmas music playing in the background, and felt like making something festive, so decided to make a tag to use on a gift.  Last year I really enjoyed seeing all the Tim Holtz 12 tags of Christmas, and this is inspired by some of those cards I had seen here in blogland.

The card features a lovely Christmas tree from a set by Marks Finest Papers, I'm not sure of the brand of the music in the background (if you know, please drop me a note), and the swirl is an old SU one.

The tree is covered in sparkly stickles (though it doesn't show clearly in this pic).

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

FOSTV - Tags or Tickets
Shopping our stash - Feathers of Fur
Simon Says Stamp & Show - For the love of sparkle
Simon Says - Anything goes
Stamping Dragon - music themed
http://stampingwithdragon.blogspot.co.uk/

Golf season at an end

September is at an end and for some of us (fair-weather golfers) that means golf season is also at an end.  Today I have a card to share with you featuring a cute golf image, that I think is perfect for a "man" card.

You'll notice there is a spot for a sentiment (within the brown tag on the left) but one isn't there yet.  I figured I would be able to either use "Happy Retirement" or "Happy Birthday" so thought I'd wait until I see what's needed to stick it on.

The colouring is with Copics as usual.  I dug out my long forgotten pastels for this, and used them for sponging along the edges.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Celebrate the Occasion - Sports
Simon Says Stamps - Anything Goes
Charisma Cards - For the guys
Cards und More - Sports
Creative Belli - Sports

You look fabulous

I recently upgraded my MDS software to MDS2 and have to say I am LOVING it, not just for use with my SU digis, but other digis as well.  The coolest feature is that you can recolour pieces of the image or the whole image.  Here are a couple of examples featuring one of the images from She's All That.

As you can see, I was able to colour the sentiment, handbag, necklace and shoes to be the same colour as my card stock.  It was super easy to print that, and then I simply layered it using the card creator dies and the stamped image of the medallion in the corner to create a background to dress it up.

 

This second one was even easier, using the A2 Card Creator dies and the digi, it was a very quick card to make and came out lovely.  These are two cards I will be proud to gift.

I am entering the top card in the following challenge:

http://www.lovesrubberstampschallenges.com/ - create your own background

Autumn challenge with HM

Happy Monday!

I hope you all had a lovely weekend with lots of crafty time, though I know for many of you crafty time is during the week and the weekend is for family time, but for me, the weekdays never seem to have enough time in them for crafts, so I am grateful for my weekends.

Today the card I am sharing with you was created for a challenge with House Mouse & Friends Monday Challenge.  This weeks challenge is to make a card with an autumn/harvest theme.

This card made me think again of all our local farmers, who put so much work in to the harvest.  We are lucky to have them!!  

I've used the A2 Card Creator dies by Spellbinder.  I haven't gotten tired of them yet, and am still enjoying experimenting with them.  So easy to make pretty, mailable cards with these dies.  The image is a House Mouse Happy Hoppers stamp called "an apple a day".

I hope you too will dig out one of your autumn/harvest themed HM stamps and play along with us in this challenge at House Mouse and Friends Monday Challenge, as usual there is a sweet treat prize available to a random winner.

Window views

A few months ago I received a lovely gift of the Grand Madison Window die, but between one thing and another, had not spent much time using it yet.  This past week I decided to start creating with it, and so here are a couple of my first cards using it.  It is easy to use and so fun, I am sure there will be lots more to follow in the next few weeks :-)

The sky is sponged in using chalk ink, and the rest is coloured with Copics.

Both cards are made using the same image, just different parts of the image.  The main image is a stamp called Mountain Meadow from Heartfelt Creations.

I am entering these cards in the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Challenge - Emboss it

Autumn Thank you

I made another card today (very productive card weekend!) trying to play along with a few challenges. I have tons of autumn cards, and didn't really need another, but I have been wanting to make a thank you card for our local farmer, whom we get a weekly surprise box of fresh produce from each week.  This year we did a share of the crop thing, where we paid up front in the spring for the whole season, and they each week, depending on the harvest, we get a different basket of stuff.  We have been loving the fresh farm harvested produce all summer long, and feel so fortunate to have found a local farmer that puts such care in to the food.  

For the card, I stamped the sentiment and image from Marks Finest Papers in black ink, and then coloured the image with copics.  I once again used the new A2 Card Creator dies by Spellbinders.  I also dug out and dusted out some old stamps and dies from Heartfelt Creations, which I used to make the background paper and leaf embellishments.  I love these leaf embellishments, they dress up any autumn flavoured card.

Challenges this Card Meets:
Speedy TV's Simple Salutations - Fall/Autumn
Scrapbooking Cafe Online - Fall/Halloween
Crazy for Challenges - Anything Goes with a Fall Twist
Creative Card Crew - Tree

Creative Belli Challenge - Fall/Autumn (using forgotten embellishments)

Silent night mouse

Since we have gotten started with Christmas cards, I thought I'd share another one I made.  This little mousy by Mo Manning is just so cute!!  Here I've paired it up with a digi sentiment from SU, and coloured with Copics.  I enjoyed colouring with the warm tones.

The shading on the edges is using the airbrush and is with a colour called Fig.  It's my new favourite for shading, so I think I'll have to get more refill ink for it soon!

The weekend is at an end, I hope you all enjoyed it and that the week ahead is good.

I am entering it in the following challenge:

Cute Card Thursday - Christmas

Stampin for the weekend - Starting Christmas early

Rudolf CASE

I decided to CASE another card, this one a card by one of my favourite crafters, KittieKraft.

I've generally followed her card, using a different tree and deer, and a different die cut for the feature panel.

For this card, I dug out my Stampin Up Watercolour crayons.  The tree image (Marks Finest Paper stamp) is stamped in SU Artichoke ink, and then I added extra green using the watercolour crayons, and the added the blue all around.  Used liquid pearl stuff with a paint brush on the tray and while that was still wet sprinkled some glitter over top, then heat set the whole thing (since the paper was starting to warp front the water colouring.  I cut it out with one of the new A2 Card Creator dies.  The deer is a die cut, and I brushed a darker brown along the edges of it with a sponge to give it depth, used red liquid pearls on the nose, and added some foliage and a bow around the neck.

I am entering this card in this weeks challenge to CASE a card with Marks Finest Paper.

Pussywillow CASE

This weekend I've had lots of time to play in my craft room and spent some inky time with a friend too, which is always inspiring.  Here is a card that I made for a challenge with Marks Finest to CASE a card.

I decided to CASE (copy with slight modifications) a card by Toni (SweatPea), though I modified it by using a different sentiment, and instead of paper piercing used my Spellbinder die cut as a stencil and airbrushed some shading in.  I actually like hers better in the end, I think this came out a bit gloomy, if I do another one I'll use a light blue instead of the light brown shading.

The pussywillow image and sentiment are both MFP, I've used Neenah Solar White for the base.

Wedding congrats

The weekend is here again, and I hope you all have some fun plans (and time to play and be inky!).  It is sunny here, and I should be out in the yard doing fall maintenance, but I think I just may just do some crafty stuff inside, hubby is very forgiving!

Here's another of the cards I made using the SU digi Wedding Wheels.  I made 12 cards in one day and this was hubby's favourite.  It is such a fun image!  This was another super quick and easy card to make and is decorated with some edging from the fabric store.  I sure am loving these new A2 card creator dies which I used to cut the fancy edge layer as well as cut and emboss the main layer.

House mouse and friends - guest designer

A couple of weeks back I was lucky enough to get picked (randomly, but nonetheless!) as a winner in the House Mouse and Friends Monday challenge.  Not only did they send me a sweet gift certificate to Simon Says, they also invited me to play along with them for the month of September as a Guest Designer.

The first challenge I am playing along with is on the theme "Friendship".  I went through all my mousy images and stumbled across this one, which I bought many years ago and just love.  It is coloured with copies, then the whole fish bowl is covered in glossy glaze.  It looks VERY cool IRL.  It is layered on an A2 Card Creator die by spellbinders and decorated with some ribbon from my stash.  

I hope this inspires you to play along with this challenge too, so you can also have a chance to win a sweet prize :-)

Wedding wheels

I had a fun "inky" day today, though I barely touched any ink.  Today I enjoyed using a bunch of digi's including some from SU....the first time I have used the SU digis, and they worked just fine.

While I don't like the MDS software, I found I can use the SU digital images from MDS using Powerpoint as I do with my other digis, since they are available in PNG format.  You just have to dig through your file drive to find the images.  I love this image called Wedding Wheels, it is just so happy and a nice break from colouring.  Here I paired it up with the new A2 Card Creator dies from Spellbinders.

Animal Challenge

I've been having fun playing along with the challenges online.  Today I wanted to play with the MFP Simple Salutations Challenge 10 - Animals, so here is card 201 of the year, featuring the new card creator Spellbinder dies (love them!) and this elegant chickadee image from Marks Finest.

As usual, all colouring is with copics.

Have you tried these new dies?  They are so easy to work with, I totally recommend them!

Sympathy with MFP

Another card for the evening, and for my annual tracker, my 199th card of the year!  Almost half way to this years goal.

This card is for another challenge at MFP, for the Speedy Fox and Friends Challenge, to make a serene and comforting Sympathy card.  I thought this Marks Finest image was perfect.

The image is stamped in black, with a bit of brown added to the stems using a Copic marker, then using E41 I added a bit of colour to each of the fluff bits at their bits where they meet the stem, then outlined them all in light BG000.  I used a sponge to add some light vintage sepia ink all along the edges of all the white layers, and paired it with my most sedate green - some long expired SU Sage (hubby said if he got a Sympathy card he'd want it to have green).

Still having trouble with photos, can't figure out settings on new camera, and got to fuss with the photoshop people so I can transfer the license from one computer to another, so please, keep being forgiving with these not so great pics for a while longer!

Mark's finest - Simple Salutation

Evening folks!

Tonight after work I wipped up a quick card since I wanted to play along with Mark's Finest Papers - Simple Salutations challenge.  It was fun seeing what I could create within about a one hour time frame!

The card features an older Mark's Finest (retired?) set  for the butterflies, and the sentiment comes from another, more recent set.  I stamped the butterflies twice and then cut out one set and overlaid.  All colouring is with Copics.